AM Frequency of the week: 840

[cyberdad]

It's been getting a little quiet around here....

Let's see if a stop at 840 on the AM band can liven things up. Even without Joe Donovan (who sadly left us last year).

So what do you guys get when you set your dial to 840? Here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago daytime it's splatter from WAIT (850), with their stick just two miles away and their 2,500 watts aimed right at me.

Nights, WAIT is off, and 840 is all WHAS with mostly the canned talk that replaced Donovan's overnight show and whatever other talk shows and sports I-heart puts on earlier in the evening. The signal varies. It used to be stronger than WCCO (830) and KOA (850), but now WCCO is usually "top dog" with WHAS still usually good, and about equal with KOA.

 

[RyanHoward]

Warminster PA(Philadelphia area):

Daytime: WVPO Stroudsburg PA(very weak), or splatter from 830 WEEU
Night: WHAS

 

[radioman148]

Near north Chicago burbs it's all WHAS at night. I used to be able to hear them faintly during the day, but haven't in recent years.

 

[schmave]

Here around Columbus, Ohio, it's a weak WHAS during the day and all WHAS at night. It's usually strong at night, generally stronger than WCCO and always stronger than KOA, which usually is weak by the time it gets this far east.
Now back when our local WOSU (820), now WVSG, was running IBOC during the day years ago, daytime reception of WHAS was basically a non-starter. I can't remember when WOSU stopped running IBOC, but it was a good day. Used to hurt reception of WKNR from Cleveland on 850 as well.

 

[cyberdad]

Now back when our local WOSU (820), now WVSG, was running IBOC during the day years ago, daytime reception of WHAS was basically a non-starter. I can't remember when WOSU stopped running IBOC, but it was a good day. Used to hurt reception of WKNR from Cleveland on 850 as well.

It's always a good day when IBOC gets turned off somewhere, IMHO!

 

[cyberdad]

Speaking of WCCO... When I used to get into the Twin Cities at least a half-dozen times a year in the 1980s, my biggest customer was 3M which is on the east side of St. Paul. Most of my other customers were south of the area, so I used to typically stay in the southeast metro. WCCO's tower is located near Anoka, which is northwest. The upshot was some nights in the area where I used to stay, WHAS routinely put some noticeable splatter on WCCO. For that matter, WBAP was capable of doing the same thing.

 

[austingrace]

Well in Altamonte springs it's wpgs during the day and mostly waas at night. I have not dxed from here in Brandon FL near Tampa in a long time. I don't think anything during the day but it will be interesting to see what happens at night.

 

[gr8oldies]

Pretty much echo everyone else - from East Tennessee, a weak WHAS by day (now in the clear with 50kW local WKVL off the air) and all WHAS by night

 

[jim-satx]

Daytime in S.A. is a weak KVJY, ESPN Deportes, in Pharr, TX, which is near the Mexico border and about nine miles from Reynosa. Nights it's WHAS. Around sunrise I've logged Christian talk daytimer KWDF in Ball, LA.

 

[Icangelp]

Here it is WHAS day & night, although I must be in that zone (whatever you call it), because, at least in my car, their night signal can fade/wobble.

Just so I don't have anything, I used to hear 20kw Radio Belize on 834. But that was back when Steve Green was a young man.

 

[cyberdad]

Here it is WHAS day & night, although I must be in that zone (whatever you call it), because, at least in my car, their night signal can fade/wobble.

FWIW, I always thought WHAS had a close-in convergence zone. Going down I-65 from Indy to "Lou-uh-vul" in the 80s and 90s, I'd typically have fading and fluttering on WHAS up until I was about 40-50 miles out during the hours of darkness.

And I thought Steve Green WAS a young man. I was thinking of offering to buy him his first legal drink!

 

[schmave]

It's always a good day when IBOC gets turned off somewhere, IMHO!

Truth!
I will add that WHAS is one of the few 50K stations I remember hearing almost as well in Houston as here, and where I live now is roughly 200 miles from Louisville versus an 800 or so-mile haul from there to Houston. WSB and WWL might be the only other skywave signals I could listen to even somewhat reliably in both places given interference from co-channel stations, directional patterns and the like.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Houston - daytime extremely weak (UNID) Spanish language station. Night, pretty dependable WHAS with Spanish language underneath.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

For me in Mt Helix, CA ...

Day, normally either blank or splash from 860 XEMO (or sometimes maybe 830 KLAA), depending on the radio. My 2002 Civic LX stock radio pulls in something extremely weak on 840, but I haven't confirmed if it's KXNT or a local station's intermod. (Also when I had a PR-D15, I think, it pulled in a faint KXNT.)

Speaking of that Civic, I'm wanting to replace the radio with a Pioneer Supertuner IIID, as the stock radio has a cassette player. I haven't decided what model I want yet, but I know I want NO touchscreen, preferably single din, and either bluetooth / front aux input / SD card reader, as well as mp3 CD playback. More details, should I choose to post, would be reserved for another topic. Btw the KXNT reception is using the rear windshield antenna. Also several weeks ago I was on CA Hwy 78 approximately south of Borrego Springs, and heard a listenable signal from 700 KALL around 11am or noon. (I don't hear it at home due to 690 XEWW splash, but I wouldn't be surprised if KALL was faintly audible if XEWW were absent.)

Night, usually KXNT dominates, and is one of the strongest skywave signals here. (I suspect it could reach 10 mV/m or a little higher on occasional peaks.) Sometimes I also hear the station in Modesto, CA underneath, and I've heard WHAS a couple times as well, also an unID Spanish station now and then.

FWIW, I always thought WHAS had a close-in convergence zone. Going down I-65 from Indy to "Lou-uh-vul" in the 80s and 90s, I'd typically have fading and fluttering on WHAS up until I was about 40-50 miles out during the hours of darkness.

And I thought Steve Green WAS a young man. I was thinking of offering to buy him his first legal drink!

That seems pretty close for WHAS fading. I'm 99 miles from KFI and 111 miles from KNX, and they both have periodic fading/cancellation. They're about the same strength daytime as nighttime here, give or take. Daytime, KNX is slightly stronger due to a saltwater path and a better antenna.

Also, unless I'm mistaken, I keep having to remind myself that the Steve Green here is probably not the same Steve Green who is a Christian music writer.

Houston - daytime extremely weak (UNID) Spanish language station. Night, pretty dependable WHAS with Spanish language underneath.

Bruce, I would have thought you might have heard WHAS in the daytime when you've done your large loop tests and gotten the other distant stations from TX, like KOA, WGN, etc? (But I haven't looked at the site in a while and don't remember if WHAS was listed.)

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Bruce, I would have thought you might have heard WHAS in the daytime when you've done your large loop tests and gotten the other distant stations from TX, like KOA, WGN, etc? (But I haven't looked at the site in a while and don't remember if WHAS was listed.)

I didn't have a trace of it. KOA, of course, was absolutely booming in using that loop. WCCO was a surprise. Of course daytime DX from those distances is characterized by deep and long lasting fades, I am thinking maybe bad luck might have made me miss it.

 

[jim-satx]

Update: For my earlier report on nighttime reception (5/25), I was relying on memory - unlike my other frequency reports - rather than doing some nights of actual listening to confirm. It turns out that KVJY and WHAS actually fight it out at night here in S.A., with WHAS having longer fades. Neither is particularly strong, either. I was surprised and was probably remembering my younger years in the late ‘70s when WHAS had a reliable nightly signal. Also, when I returned to DXing in February of last year, I wasn't hearing KVJY at all at night.